August Cole

Adjunct Fellow

Expertise: Defense Industry Policy, Oversight, Strategy and Financial Markets; Battlefield and Intelligence Contracting; “Smart Power”

August Cole is a writer focusing on national security issues. He is currently writing a series of novels about private military contractors involved in covert and clandestine intelligence operations for the U.S.

His research centers on how operational and policy priorities, political shifts and budget cuts impact the defense industry and U.S. national security.

From 2007 to 2010, Cole reported on the defense industry for The Wall Street Journal from Washington. He covered companies ranging from Boeing to Blackwater, as well as broader defense policy and political matters. From 1998 to 2006, he worked as an editor and a reporter for MarketWatch.com, a financial Web site, where he began covering the aerospace and defense industry. In 1998, he worked as an intern at the Freedom Forum’s European Centre in London and as an intern at the NBC News London bureau.

Cole earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Diplomatic History and French from the University of Pennsylvania and earned a Master in Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.